Free Download High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland by Tom Parfitt
English | July 20, 2023 | ISBN: 1472294769, 1472294777 | True EPUB | 338 pages | 12 MB
High Caucasus is Tom Parfitt’s wonderfully atmospheric memoir-cum-travel narrative about the 1,000-mile walk he made to lay to rest a ghost. On the 1 September 2004, at the Beslan siege in Russia when Chechen terrorists took more than 1,000 people captive at celebrations held to mark the first day of the school year. Lasting three days, the siege reached a bloody climax when two bombs exploded inside the school and Russian troops stormed the building, sparking a fire in the gymnasium where the captives were held. In the chaos, 334 hostages, more than half of them children (the youngest two years old), died. Never a war correspondent, Tom was emotionally pulverised, and his solution was to turn back to his lifelong love of walking, to a nature cure of sorts. Having long loved the Caucasus, he also wanted to understand why the mountain peoples there, people like the Chechens, were so angry at Russia.